Tag: musicality

You’re in belly dance class, and the instructor starts to lead the warm-up. The song they play helps you feel energized and more connected to your body after a long day at work.

But the next song in the playlist is way faster than the last one. Whoa. And once you’ve caught up with that song the next song screeches nearly to a halt and just plods along. How are you supposed to get into your body if you’re constantly being pushed around by the instructor’s playlist?

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Why Your Warm-Up Playlist Matters

As you know, a great warm-up is essential for a safe dance class experience. And the music you use can make or break how engaged your students are with your warm-up exercises.

A lot of people ask me about the music I use in class, particularly the warm-ups. Warm-up music isn’t an afterthought for me; it’s the first thing my new students hear.

Personally, I like warm-up music with a steady beat, Arabic or other MENAT instrumentation, and an even 4/4 meter. It should be both melodic and heavy on percussion, because it’s in the warm-up that my students first learn how to hear and count music. It should also be engaging enough to be fun, but not distracting for the students. It should also avoid being too dramatic or intense.

I also prefer to not have a lot of vocals or mizmar, because both compete with my teaching voice. And while I love to listen to and dance to complex and intricate music, I find that music that is too interesting can distract both me and my students.

A Great Playlist Has Flow

I’m really into a playlist that flows. Personally, I like to arrange the songs from slowest to fastest. Typical tempos range from 90 beats per minute (bpm) to 130 bpm, but usually I’ll select music between 100 and 120 bpm. How do I figure that out? By using this handy-dandy tempo calculator. Just tap along with the song that you’re measuring and the website does the rest of the work for you.

I also like to arrange my warm-up playlists by musical and regional theme. I have playlists organized by Turkish, Balkan, Arabic classic remix (oh, the blasphemy!), and more. This helps ease the ear and help it settle on a particular sound, even if the music is not necessarily “traditional” (like, say, songs by Balkan Beat Box).

For my beginners, I have a “Basic” warm-up playlist. In total, it runs for over an hour. Obviously, my warm-ups are not an hour long, but it gives me flexibility in where I can start the playlist. If I feel that students need a slower pace, then I’ll start the music at the beginning. If it’s a more advanced class, I can start later in the playlist where the faster songs are.

Warm-Up Music Can Be the “Gateway Drug”

For many non-Arab or non-MENAT dance students, your warm-up music is their first encounter with Middle Eastern instruments. Personally, I like music that uses samples of Middle Eastern songs and motifs but blends them with music that my new students might be more familiar with, like electronic drums and programming.

This kind of music can help get your students used to hearing Middle Eastern instruments, but not all remix music is the same. When listening to fusion or remix-style music, it’s also important that you can identify the different instruments, song samples, and other musical references in the songs that you’re using. Is that a doumbek or a zarb or an Indian tabla? Just because it’s remix music that doesn’t absolve you of knowing the difference.

Some of My Faves

I’m really digging The Spy From Cairo lately. This New York-based ‘ud player and electronic music producer integrates “traditional” instruments with old school dub, trip hop, and other electronic music genres. Visit him on Bandcamp, and get his most recent album, Nothing New Under the Sun, which features a rockin’ Gnawa Shaabi number. He also releases under the name Zeb.

Despite the cover image being of questionable taste, my students love a lot of the songs from Harem: Club & Chillout Remixes. My favorites include a beat box remix of “Ya Ain Moulayatin” and a trip hop-inspired take on “Set El Hosen.”

And even though the first volume is a bit old, I keep coming back to Electric Oasis and Electric Oasis 2: Desert Chill – Desert Dance. Each features a wide range of tempos, from slow and slinky to upbeat, great for stamina-building. “Baghdad Groove” from Volume 2 mashes up “El Samer” and the nay taqsim from Princess of Cairo.

Why Not the Classics?

There’s no reason that you couldn’t have classic songs on your warm-up playlists. However, I tend to save original and classic pieces for combinations and choreography. Why?

Classic songs often have a lot of changes, both in rhythm, tempo, and meter. This can be difficult to navigate during a warm-up, and can throw students (and less-experienced instructors) off-beat.

They also tend to be really engaging and ear-catching—that’s why they’re classics. Some of them, as you know, are very emotional and moving. When I’m warming up my students, I need them to be focused on my vocal cues as well as their own bodies. They can be swept away by the velvety voice of Abdel Halim Hafez in the combination that we do at the end of the class.

I also feel like classic songs require a bit more contextualization, which we just don’t have time for in a warm-up. The warm-up should get dancers into their bodies, wake up their muscles, and work on physical technique. I don’t want to stop dancers in the midst of movement to explain a song’s origin or meaning. That kind of training can happen at the end of class when teaching the combination; the movements in the combination will embody these extra elements.

Keep Them Moving and Make It Fun

A great warm-up playlist should have momentum, and ultimately, it should be fun. Let your warm-up music be inspiring, energetic, and educational. And sometimes you’ll try a song that just doesn’t work. You’ll never know until it’s on your playlists.

Believe me, I’ve had my own struggles with learning sequencing, movement details, and full choreographies.

I have always been a musically-driven performer, whether it be in ice dance, in competitive figure skating, and now, in belly dance. But that really became clear to me when I was earning my MA and taking several modern dance classes a week. In those classes, the music often just acted as a backbeat, a time keeper, and didn’t inspire the movement. No, the live musician would watch the dancers and riff off of them, rather than the other way around.

In those classes, I had a harder time remembering combinations because I had no music to guide me. I had to find the movement in accompaniment, even if it was a struggle.

Thankfully, my main dance genre is intimately tied to music, and chances are that yours is too.

So, what’s the one thing I would tell someone who asks me how to learn choreography faster?

Learn. The. Music.

Of all the dance forms in the world, belly dance is one of the most intimately tied to melody and percussion. Our job as dancers is to interpret and transmit the music to the audience through our movements, expression, and sentiment. This requires refined technique, yes, but it also requires a sharp and perceptive ear.

Of course, learning the feet first will help you, but if the instructor is connecting the footwork of a dance to the music, then you must also be familiar with the music.

A recent study showed that people who were perceived to be “better dancers” were better able to predict where a rhythm or melody would fall. That is, they had a better musical sense. So, it follows that if you know your music, that is, you can predict what sections are next, then you will be better able to dance, and execute set choreography… and improvise. (Unfortunately, that study also revealed that some people are “beat deaf,” and unable to stay within the auditory rhythmic groove of a song.)

Following Along Isn’t Enough

Sometimes it’s easy to let the energy of the room and the other dancers sweep you away that you aren’t truly internalizing the movements and the music. We look at our colleagues and follow them, letting our mirror neurons do the work that our ears could be doing. Instead of listening to the music and letting that guide our movements, we rely on our fellow dancers.

And while we must be able to flock and follow, without intimate understanding of the songs to which we perform, we’re literally lost.

If you’re not inherently musical, this just means that you’ll need to listen to the music more often, without dancing to it. The more you know a song, can hum the melody or beat, or playback the song in your head, the better you’re going to remember a choreography to that song.

Let’s Map Out a Song

Often music is described as having sections to which we assign a letter. Section A, B, C, and so on. Whether we’re learning someone else’s choreography or creating our own, we must know the underlying architecture of the song to which we’re dancing.

We have an intro of 5 counts of 8. 5 is actually an unusual number of 8 counts to introduce a song, so that adds some interest.

Then we have the first section, which we’ll call Verse A, which lasts for 4 counts of 8.

Then we have a pre-chorus, section B, for 4 counts of 8.

After that, it’s the actual chorus—”just dance”—section C, for 4 counts of 8.

A little 4-for-nothing follows before we revisit A again, but this time with different lyrics.

We get another pre-chorus B, and then the chorus again.

Then the song changes it up with a new section, which is the guest singer, Colby O’Donis, with his rapid-fire rap-like singing for 4 counts of 8.

O’Donis sings a melodic variation of part B for 4 counts of 8, so I call this B var.

Then we get a stripped down version of the chorus, C, for 2 counts of 8 (C var.), then the chorus resumes as per usual for the next four counts of 8.

Instrumental time! 2 counts of 8.

New section: E, which acts as a bridge, for 4 counts of 8.

And another section, F, another kind of bridge, for 4 counts of 8.

We return to C var., then the chorus, as in number 8, above.

The song gives us the satisfaction of hearing the chorus C one more time for 2 more counts of 8, before ending on count 1.

Even a “simple” pop song like “Just Dance” makes more sense when we break it down. But now, if we were to learn a choreography to it, we have a skeleton and framework with which to work. These chunks will help us remember the dance, because now we have a better understanding of the musical structure.

A song might have lots of different melodic and rhythmic sections. The original cinematic version of the Abdel Halim Hafez song “Gana El Hawa” has many different sections, with only one repeat of the chorus at the very end.

And note that you don’t have to read music, understand notation, chords, or any additional music theory to get started… although I recommend that you have at least a basic understanding of rhythmic notation if you’re considering yourself intermediate-level or above.

Great Choreography Will Echo the Musical Structure

Even the most complex choreography can be learned in small chunks. In fact, cognitive psychologist Gary Marcus, author of Guitar Zero, found that adult brains need new information to be presented in smaller chunks than children do. Adults have less time and less brain “real estate” to assimilate new information. (The good news is that there’s no “magic window” during which we have to learn new skills; we can learn at any age.)

When we approach choreography as smaller sections, we do our brains a favor and making the learning process easier.

A great choreography, in belly dance at least, follows the structure of the song to which it is set. This doesn’t mean always repeating the exact same movement every time a melodic phrase repeats, but it does mean that the movement isn’t random.

Let’s look at Suhaila Salimpour’s “Yanna Yanna.” The same melody repeats quite frequently, but the movement phrases themselves don’t always repeat. The orchestration changes, with different instruments taking the lead and being highlighted as the song progresses. But then, at the end, the dancers return to the counterclockwise turns with rib cage circles that they did at the very beginning of the piece. This section acts as a book end and reflects the arrangement of the song.

Choreography: Now In Extra Chunky

The next time you are learning a new choreography, don’t look at the dance as a whole. Look at it as little bits that make a whole. Map out the music yourself in sections, as I did with “Just Dance.” Listen to the music at home, in the car, or at work, so you can have a deeper understanding of its sequencing.

Even if you’re learning a short combination, approach it in parts. Chances are that the instructor will teach it to you in sections, so use those sections to your advantage. As you’re learning the dance, give each section a name. I like to think of each section by the step by which it starts, such as “Rib slides, rib circle” or “Circle-2-3-4.”

Map it out, work it out, and you’ll nail that new choreography in no time!

What tips and tricks do you have for learning choreography or dissecting a new piece of music? How do you like to organize your creative process into a dance?

Your feet are the key to clean dancing. If you’re a belly dancer, as most of my readers are, you might be consumed with learning and refining your pelvis and torso articulations, but how much attention are you paying to your feet? It seems so obvious, but chances are you’re not paying as much attention as you should be!

The Feet are the Foundation of Dance

Most dance forms are performed upright and on the feet. There are a few exceptions, of course, like breaking (which also does feature footwork like the 6-step, but mostly features acrobatic floorwork), but for the most part, most dance traditions rely on the timing of the feet to determine the rest of the dance. The feet are our connection to the floor and the earth beneath us. They need to be strong, supple, and if we are performing to music, they need to be on the beat.

Most of the time when I see dancers who are struggling with the technical and musical elements of dance training, it’s because they are not entirely connected to their feet.

We learn to move our feet at a very young age. Most children start learning to walk at two years old. That means, most of us have been balancing ourselves on our feet since we were toddlers. In fact, that’s where the term “toddler” comes from, right? As we learn to walk we “toddle” around, finding our balance and our own personal rhythm.

For dance forms that are inextricable from music, the timing of steps and footwork are essential. Just as a house must have a sound foundation on which to build a house that will stand for years, our feet must provide that same strong base for our movement.

Core and Distal

In modern dance and when we teach movement to children, we often talk about the relationship between the head and tail, the right and left sides of the body, and the upper and lower parts of the body. We instinctively learn these elements when we are young, as we build our proprioception and our awareness of our own body in space and time in relationship to the world around us.

When we talk about feet, we’re also talking about the distal ends of the body. Your hands and the crown of your head are also your distal ends. Your abdomen, pelvis, and ribs are your core, sometimes referred to as “proximal.” In the dance teaching method called “Brain Dance,” the core-distal relationship is considered one of the essential movement distinctions we learn as children. The dance teacher in this video explores core and distal with her young students.

When you’re practicing, it might feel like your fingers and toes are the most difficult to keep mental track of, and that’s because they are farthest away from your core. When you are fully aware of your distal ends, you might feel that you have a greater kinesthetic sensation in these parts, which you must harness to keep your feet on time.

Releve or Flat? Choose One

In the Salimpour School of Dance, we place a lot of importance on the position of the foot, specifically whether or not it is flat or relevé. While this is not the case with all approaches to belly dance, nor all dance forms, I have observed that the stronger a dancer’s foot placement, the more secure they appear, the clearer their hipwork becomes, and the more free they are with their upper body.

When it comes to being in relevé, or demi-point, the foot must be as high up as it can go on to the metatarsals. Anywhere in between flat and demi-point becomes a kind of kinesiological no-man’s land. I’ve noticed in my years of teaching that when a dancer allows their foot to be somewhere in between releve and flat, they sink into their knees, and the rest of their entire body responds a bit slower, their hip work less clear, and their posture less upright. We jokingly call this in-between place “flat-evé.” When a dancer’s releve is strong, high, and solid, their entire body is more free.

Indeed, when a dancer is flat-footed, a similar principle applies. When a dancer distributes their weight evenly between the ball of the foot and the heel, their body feels more secure. When you are dancing, pay attention to your heels. Are they on the floor when when you are flat-footed? Are they pressed as high as your flexibility will allow when in demi-point?

Whether or not you are flat or relevé, imagine your whole foot as being supple and flexible. We might think of the foot as being one unit, but there are 26 bones in the human foot, all working with each other to keep you balanced.

Learn the Feet, Learn the Choreography

When I see dancers who struggle with learning choreography, often it’s because they feel overwhelmed with the intricate parts of a dance. They might want to get the correct position of the arms, or the hip work. They might also struggle to look like the instructor, following along as best they can.

But I can assure you that if you focus on the timing and placement of the feet, the entire choreography will start to fall into place.

When learning a choreography in a form such as belly dance, which is driven almost entirely by the music, the feet must connect to the rhythms and pulses of the songs to which we dance. Once you learn the footwork, the rest of the dance will be so much easier to remember and perform.

Get Your Feet on The Beat

When you are dancing, your feet are your metronome. In ballet, this is obvious. At the barre work on our tendu, elevé, relevé, pas de bourree, all on specific counts in the music. This detailed and meticulous attention to the timing of our footwork is essential for ballet, particularly when dancing in an ensemble. The presentational nature of ballet requires that we dance in unison with our fellow dancers. But in ballet class, often we are working on our barre and center work to solo piano music. In belly dance class, the music to which we drill often has more than just on instrument.

I’m hardly one to imply that ballet is the ultimate dance form. That’s hardly the case. Many other dances also rely on the timing of the feet to drive the movement of the entire body. Partner dances from Salsa to ballroom to Dance Sport all require that the feet be on a specific foot at a specific time. Even improvisational social dance forms like Lindy Hop have specific timings for the feet. When both partners can tap into the rhythm of the music, they can create extemporaneous dance magic.

Embody the Rhythm Through Your Feet

The next time you learn a choreography, or even the next time you drill your technique, find the beat with your feet. Imagine that the drum beat of the song to which you are dancing is actually driving your steps. Whether or not your feet are stepping in a chasse, or on the eighth or quarter notes, or even in 16th notes as in a Choo Choo, the music must be the impetus of when the sole of the foot makes contact with the floor.

When faced with a choreography that you find difficult to learn or retain, start with the feet first. Listen to how the feet reflect the music. What instrument are they physicalizing?

Once you start truly embodying the rhythm and pulse of a song through your feet, you’ll find that the rest of your dancing will take less effort, and hopefully allow you to connect with the music even more.

Many times I see fellow dancers commenting that they “Loved!” a performance that they saw, or that a performance was “Amazing!” without really qualifying or identifying why. Of course, it’s awesome if someone loves a performance, but if they can’t identify why, then I question whether or not they know what they’re looking at (ending a sentence with a preposition eek). Read More

Musicality has been on my mind lately. I have been told by many people, including some who I admire more than I can say, that my dancing in incredibly musical. Even my improvisations to live drum solos and taqasim, when I don’t know the music or what the musicians will play next. My ice dancing coaches also remarked on my ability to connect with the music, and they would fiddle with the tempo knob on the tape deck (remember those?) to see if I could keep up or slow down with the song… and I always could, if I didn’t break into laughter first (because, really, who wants to do a reeeaaally sssssssllllooooooowwwwww foxtrot?). Whether or not you think I’m musical, I do feel that musicality is an essential skill for any belly dancer, regardless of style.

When I watch a dancer, I watch for a few key elements: technique/posture, emotional expression, and musicality. If a dancer naturally has great expression and musicality, her (or his, of course) teachers have an easy job; teaching technique is the easy part. Teaching expression is a little more difficult, but through creativity and acting exercises, a dancer can make great progress. Musicality, however, I think is one of the most difficult concepts not just to teach but to convey in a practical manner. musicality is funny thing… the concept is a bit like a wriggly eel. You know it exists, but it’s difficult to pin down. How one dancer hears the music isn’t how another dancer will hear the music. I don’t believe that a dancer must be a master at reading music on a staff or know how to play a melodic instrument to have a strong musical sense. I tried to learn guitar and piano and never succeeded. However, here are some tips.

Understand the tempo, rhythm, meter, and pulse of your music. Tempo is the speed of the basic beat; we measure this in “Beats Per Minute” (BPM). (Don’t know what BPM your song is in? Check out this awesome website). Think of a metronome: the continuous, steady TICK tick tick tick TICK tick tick tick (this example is for a song in 4/4). Rhythm is the underlying percussion (drums and similar instruments); in Middle Eastern music we must learn and recognize dozens of rhythms from the ubiquitous Saidi (in 4/4) to the flowing Samai (in 10/8) and to the tricky Sama Zarafat (in 13/8). Time signature is how many beats per measure; basically this is how much you keep counting before you start over. As dancers, we often count in 8, but some songs are counted in 9 (like in a lot of Turkish folk and Roman music) or, like the Samai and Sama Zarafat in 10 or in 13. A song counted in 9 will, in its most basic form be counted like this: TICK tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick TICK tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick. 9 “ticks” with an emphasis on the first one, the “1″. The pulse is a bit less technical; it is the “feel” of the song. Saidi music with its heavy drums and wailing mizmars feels heavier than a delicate nay taqsim.

Listen to the melody. The melody, in its most basic sense is a combination of rhythm and pitch. Higher pitch notes have a higher vibrational frequency; lower pitch notes have a lower vibrational frequency. In general, we interpret higher pitch sounds higher in the body, and lower pitch sounds lower in the body; this is a great guide for beginners, however skilled dancers can break these rules by keeping the quality of the sound in their movement, regardless of what body parts they move. Many songs have a structure, meaning that they have different repeating melodic sections. We often refer to these by letters: the first section being “A”, the second “B”, the third as “C” and so on. Basic songs will have A through C or A through D. The melody is played by different instruments (naturally), and these instruments have different tonal qualities (known as timbre, pronounced “tahmber”). A violin is continuous, yet has a tension (produced by the drawing of the horse hair bow over metal strings), the nay is also continuous, but has a more hollow, open feel. An acoustic guitar has more attack, meaning that the sound made as the pick plucks the strings happens almost immediately, and drops off quickly; it is more percussive than the violin or nay. The qanun and oud are similar, as they are plucked, however, the oud, with its pear-like shape, creates a slightly rounder sound than the qanun. Different movements have different qualities as well: locks and isolations are hard-contraction movements that work better for sharper sounds, and soft-contraction movements such as figure 8s and circles are better for interpreting continuous sounds. Don’t be afraid to play, but never stop listening.

When the music stops, you stop. When the music goes, you go. It’s the dance equivalent of Red Light / Green Light. I have seen countless taqasim performed by fantastic and even famous dancers who keep moving when the musician takes a pause or a breath. If the sound stops, your movement should stop. When the musician continues, then you continue. If you keep dancing, it shows that you’re not really listening to your music, and if you’re not really listening, then what are you dancing to? Of course, a dancer can choose to dance over the sound for theatrical purposes; however, I feel that a dancer must be quite skilled to pull this off. It takes more skill and presence to be in the music than it does to dance over it.

Listen to a lot of music. If you’re a belly dancer, you really should be listening to a lot of Middle Eastern music. Arabic and Turkish music operates under different rules and (generally) evolved from different traditions than European music. The tuning systems are sometimes unfamiliar (maqamat, singular maqam), containing microtones (think of a key between the white and black keys of the piano) and embellishments not found in most Western music traditions. American jazz, however, comes close at times, with its long improvised sections and complex syncopations. And speaking of jazz, a dancer should listen to lots of other music, preferably music that challenges your ear. That pop station on the radio just isn’t going to do it.

Most importantly: the music should inform your dance; not the other way around. What do I mean by this? Your movements should be a reaction to the sounds, not a reaction to your internal dialog. If you’re thinking “Am I doing enough?”, “Oh no! I forgot everything I know!”, “I feel like my movements are so boring!”, “What if the audience thinks I look dumb?”, “What should I do next?”…. then you’re not listening to the music, are you? You’re listening to the voice in your head. We all have it, but we must learn to ignore it. (Not that ignoring that voice is easy; it’s a process that takes a lifetime.)

Of course, developing a sense of musical timing and interpretation takes longer for some dancers than for others, but I do think that with some true listening, a dancer can learn to be more musical. And of course, there isn’t always one correct way to interpret a sound; if we all interpret an oud taqsim in the same manner, then we would be robbing ourselves of the creative experience. Belly dance is unique in the realm of movement arts in that it is characterized by the dancer aiming to “become” a physical representation of the music. With our sophisticated torso and hip isolations, combined with artful layers, one dancer can interpret an entire orchestra with her body. Why dance over the music when you can become the music?

About Me

With a lifetime of performance experience as a figure skater and dancer, I hope to inspire others to be the best dancers they can be. In addition to holding an MA in Dance Studies and a BA in Near Eastern Studies, I'm only one of four dancers in the world to hold the esteemed teaching certification in both the Suhaila Salimpour and Jamila Salimpour Formats of belly dance.

Read my blog to improve your dance, both in the studio and out. I write about technique, performance, musicality, wellness, and non-oppressive practice.